I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

How Can I Tell If My Chicken Eggs Are Fertilized Without Cracking Them?

I recently got a question from a reader who wanted to hatch some of his chickens eggs. He has 8 chickens and 1 rooster. He currently has collected about 20 eggs and is wanting to know if they are fertile, so that he can put them in an incubator.

While I am not allowed to have roosters due to my neighborhood covenants, I have always kind of wondered if I would get a fertilized egg before I get rid of them. {We order chicks and usually get a rooster or two out of the bunch–we get rid of the rooster pretty soon after we know that it is in fact a rooster, though.}

So, first a little talk about the birds and the bees {only, in this case, it really only involves two birds}. In order for an egg to become fertilized, the rooster and the hen have to have mated prior to the formation of the egg. If this happens, the hen will lay a fertilized egg. This probably goes without saying, but if you don’t have a rooster, you will not have any fertilized eggs…ever. A hen can lay fertilized eggs from anywhere to 2 days after mating up to 3 weeks after mating with the rooster.

The oldest and easiest way to tell if an egg is fertilized is called candling the egg. It is literally holding the egg up to a lit candle {not to warm it, but in order to see inside of the egg}. You can also use a very bright small flashlight. If the egg appears opaque, it is probably a fertilized egg. {By opaque, I mean, you can’t really see through the egg or it is much cloudier than all of the other eggs.}

As a side note, just because an egg is fertile, does not mean it will become a chick. It must be properly incubated by the hen or under an incubator in order to develop into a chick. After 3-4 days of incubation, you can candle the egg again. You will see that it has started to form–it will look kind of like red veins spreading throughout the egg.

A fertile egg layed by a hen that is not incubated is perfectly safe to eat, and unless you are paying super close attention, you will never know the difference. Once you collect the eggs and put them in the fridge, the development completely stops.

I hope that helps, and if you do get some baby chicks, send some pictures!

Comments

Have you tried mypetchicken.com? You can pay just a bit extra to have your chicks sexed if you want to avoid the rooster rehoming stuff. Due to a traumatic childhood experience, I avoid all roosters at all costs lol. We ordered our 6 ladies from them and were super happy with the transaction 🙂

I have to agree and they taste better than Cornish cross. I prefer Dunlap as not only roos but pullets are thrown away if not ordered from most hatcheries. Dunlap has a retail store for overages or ones that hatch a bit late. Specialty growers get many of the roos.

Annnnd for the record, you can have a broody chicken without having a rooster. Never had a rooster, couldn’t figure out why my hen was just stay in her hen house all mopey… Knowing what I did about the birds and the bees, I didn’t think about the fact that chickens may want to be mamas too. So I talked with my good chicken and told her she needed to stop sitting on the eggs and getting all cranky… she aint having chicks without a husband. 😉

So, in case I was not the only one that didn’t know this… thought I’d share that.

It looks like a Wyandotte to me. I have one, nice temperament. I had an Americana rooster. Was prettier than the Wyandotte, But had a terrible attitude. I could never turn my back n him or I would get the spurs

I have 2 hens 2 chicks & 2 roosters ones active the other not so
much but anyway. my friend said if you put a radio in the hen
house and turn it on a christian music channel they will sit
the wierd thing is it works XD

I have three silkie hens in a coupe. They are pets and about 3 years old. They lay and I take the eggs each day. Our neighbor has the sweetest while leghorn rooster (he is old) and he jumps our fence to visit our hens and for me to give him treats. He has a small brown bantam hen that is his companion. She is over here all the time too. We live in an equestrian area and are zoned for chickens. So, I found the brown bantam lady friend sitting on a nest in our horse arena and she has a clutch of eggs. From what I’ve read, it is unlikely the eggs were fertilized by a standard sized rooster. She won’t move off the eggs and I’m afraid a predator could do her harm in the night. Should I move her and her eggs to the coupe? She hangs out with my silkies when I let them free range during the day. It appears one egg had been knocked out of the nest yesterday. The egg was cold. My husband and I broke it open and it was not fertilized. Perhaps it had not been long enough for it to start developing. Don’t know what I should do for her. I could pick up all the eggs and destroy them so she won’t be brooding in a vulnerable location. Please advise.

It has been a long time, but I will answer you in case someone can use the answer. We always pick up our broody hen, place her in a “nursery cage” we have prepared with hay, and put her eggs in with her. She grumbles, but I think she knows why. Every morning we open her door so she can go eat and drink as she pleases, and every evening we close it. The other chickens don’t bother her because she is all by herself, she feels safe, we feel secure knowing she is safe. Move her in the evening, it is much easier. Talk to her, it will keep her calm. Be sure the cage has openings no bigger than 1/2 by 1/2 inch or 1cm by 1 cm. Small racoons will reach in and pull feathers and torture your hen while she sleeps otherwise. Be sure she is out of any weather, and has a solid roof over her.

Have you ever tried candling eggs? I have had chickens for many year and cannot tell by candling whether an unincubated egg is fertile or not. I have to put in incubator and wait 5-7 days to see if veins are developing.

I have rosters but I had a polish roster and I kept him inside so he would live longer and we all know how loud roos get so to keep him from getting to loud I bought velcro strips if you place in on the roos neck like a collar on a dog not tight mind you cause you don’t want to hurt him so make sure it under the feather close to his shoulder when the roo crows it won’t stop the crowing but it turns the volume down to a bark it’s really not a bark it more like if you cell phone has a roster ring tone it just makes it’s were if you live in a city you can have roosters and abided by city nose ordnets and my polish would crow more since it have the collar on cause it made him feel special when I let him outside in the day time I took it off of him and he would take it and run off with it in his beak all day it was so cute my animals are more kids and get what ever the please lol

My hen will NOT get off of her eggs.. it’s her 1st time sitting on eggs. I put her in a pet taxi ,surrounded by another square make shift fence to make her a Nursery and to keep her safe and from the other hens from laying eggs in her “nursery”. I’ve read a few things about what to do if hen won’t get out to eat drink etc. Her comb was turning a ligjt color,she started looking weak sickly, due to not eating or drnking… So I’ve had to force feed her Pedialyte w a syringe , also scrambled her some eggs, blue berries watermelon Chicken feed etc n put em in her face. Shes even got a spot to go dust.. but she wont get out of taxi.. I know she needs to get out to eat, Drink dust stretch legs poop etc.. But she’s adamant about not getting off those eggs. So now I have to go out a cpl xs a day to take her out of taxi, she’s finally went to poop.. n wow it was HORRIBLE… she even pecked the grass and a little bit of food.. but right back to the taxi she goes.. if all goes well ,we may be having CPL baby chicks in 4 more days.. still not sure if the eggs even have babies inside, found a rotten one she was still sitting on that was cracked.. so i just hope for her sake, her babies make it.. poor thing been sitting on the eggs for almost 3 weeks now.. Wish her luck.. And me too.. know she n i I will both be heart broken if she’s gone through all that for nothing…

To Casi,
I have dealt with a broody chicken. After much research the easiest cure is to get a rabbit cage,they have small screens, place the cage up off the ground on some work saw horses. You want the bottom of cage open to the air. Place the hen in cage with water and food. I knew mine was cured when she quit pecking me when I put my hand in the cage. It took about a week. The article I read said this was to cool their underside. If you don’t cure one, then the others could start brooding too. My hen did not care if she was sitting on an egg or a rock. She was not leaving that nesting box. I started researching after she started getting an attitude about being removed from the nesting box.

I need some advice. I incubated 7 eggs and only one hatched. The poor little thing is so lonely, it’s only 3 days old. I was thinking of building a brood house in my chicken coop so the chick could visit safely with the hens. What advice do you have?

To Casi,
I have dealt with a broody chicken. After much research the easiest cure is to get a rabbit cage,they have small screens, place the cage up off the ground on some work saw horses. You want the bottom of cage open to the air. Place the hen in cage with water and food. I knew mine was cured when she quit pecking me when I put my hand in the cage. It took about a week. The article I read said this was to cool their underside. If you don’t cure one, then the others could start brooding too. My hen did not care if she was sitting on an egg or a rock. She was not leaving that nesting box. I started researching after she started getting an attitude about being removed from the nesting box.

Hello, I have a urgent question. On my balcony, a pair of pigeons have made a nest. They only have 1 egg. They made the nest around three to four weeks ago. However, they have not come back to the nest in the last 3 days. What do you recommend to do? Should I just leave it? Maybe they could come back? I am afraid that if I touch it then it will be abandoned for good. Also, I don’t have an incubator at home as I live in a flat.

We have one hen that just wandered into our yard and never left, so we kept her. Then someone gifted a young rooster to us. My granddaughters had already named the hen Delilah, so we named the rooster…Samson of course. He was only about 3-4 months old when we got him so he wasn’t quite old enough to fertilize eggs. Now he’s about 6 months old and is always on Delilah.
My question is…How will I know when the eggs are fertilized? I’d like to hatch some and don’t want to collect them if Delilah will hatch them or should I incubate them? Either way I need to know how to tell if the eggs are fertilized.
Thank you